"Welcome to the Roller Coaster Ride"

We had a follow-up appointment in Iowa City on Wednesday. We're always a little bit somber on days when we have to go to Iowa City. Each time we've gone, we've gotten more bad news. This appointment went shockingly well. We had an ultrasound, a fetal echo and a meeting with the high risk OB. The ultrasound was first and went well. She's getting so crammed in there it was hard to distinguish her different body parts. They told us everything looked good and we didn't need to have any more!

Next was the echo. This is always the most dreaded, yet informational part. After the news last time, we were prepared to discuss how long she would live after birth if we did nothing, organ donation, etc. To our surprise and the surprise of the Pediatric Cardiologist, Claire's atrial septal defect is looking better. The blood appeared to be flowing freely between the two atria as opposed to last time, when the blood was slowly sputtering through. He said if this remains the case when they do an echo after she is born, she will not be considered high risk, and will be able to have the first of the three surgeries when she is around 5 days old. This definitely changed our way of thinking as far as planning after her birth. We are now waiting until she's born to make any final decisions. We are trying not to get our hopes up too high. They are still giving her about a 50/50 chance of surviving the first surgery. Normal HLHS babies with no other complications have about an 85-90% chance of survival. We feel as though this is a sign that we owe her a chance at fighting this. We will not have any more echos until she is born, so we're now not-so-patiently playing the waiting game.

The OB appointment was short and sweet. I was measuring about 31 weeks instead of 33 weeks, but they said as long as I was within 3 weeks, they aren't concerned. I was prepared to talk induction, but after the surprise from the echo, the plan is now to let me go into labor naturally. The bigger the baby the better they handle the surgeries. They said they won't let me go past 41 weeks. If she's as stubborn as we think she will be, it's possible that we will have a July baby instead of a June baby. I better keep up the walking. I really don't want to go another 8 weeks before meeting her!

This truly is a roller coaster ride of emotion. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we get the same good news after she is born. Not too much longer!